Les McCann - Plays the Shampoo at the Village Gate

2013 Cd reissue.

Les McCann was at the height of his popularity as a soul pianist when these two joyous and irresistibly swinging albums were recorded live in late December 1961 at New Yorks Village Gate. Full of arresting playing, Plays The Shampoo, from the evening of Friday 29th, shows off the tightly-knit trio McCann had forged with Herbie Lewis and Ron Jefferson. And McCanns seldom revealed lyrical face appears here in his Bill Evans-like playing on the first 16 bars of the Too Close for Comfort theme statement and on You I Thought I Knew, a lovely composition of his that opens introspectively and builds to a gentle, swinging groove.

Recorded a day earlier, the second album, In New York had the serendipitous addition of Blue Mitchell and Stanley Turrentine, and a particularly savoury surprise in the late, little-known Frank Haynes, who more than holds his own in this fast company. His is the first of the two tenors to solo on each track except Maxies Changes. The soulful mood that suffused their meeting with Les McCanns trio and enchanted the audience is epitomized by the euphorically grooving A Little 3/4 For God & Co.